What's New:

September 5, 2011

"For The Love of a Child"

Second Annual Benefit for the children of Mission 2012. Saturday October 22, 2011 at 6PM. Featuring "The Friends Music Group". Purchase your tickets HERE

Current News:

September 5, 2011

Summer 2012 Application

Save the dates: Summer Mission 2012 will be July 13-28. Application will be available online October 1, 2011

Halong Bay - North Vietnam, UNESCO World Heritage

Ha Long Bay (literally: "Descending Dragon Bay"; Vietnamese: Vinh Ha Long) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including 1,960 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km2 with a high density of 775 islets. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea shore biosystem. Ha Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic faunal species.

Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistorical human beings in this area tens of thousands years ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nho culture around 18,000-7000 BC, the Cái Bèo culture 7000-5000 BC and the Ha Long culture 5,000-3,500 years ago. Ha Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts found in Bài Thơ Mout, Đau GoCave, Bãi Cháy.

500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beauty of Ha Long Bay in his verse Lo Nhan Van Don, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam listed Ha Long Bay in the National Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the core zone of Hạ Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site according to criterion vii, and listed for a second time according to criterion viii.